The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of Impatiens hawkeri, known by the cultivar name ‘Applause White’. The new variety is a product of a planned breeding program conducted in Lompoc, Calif. The purpose of the breeding program was to create earlier flowering cultivars with larger flower size, white flowers, and a compact, mounded plant habit. The new variety originated from a cross-pollination during the fall of 1998 of a proprietary selection of Impatiens hawkeri identified as code number 98-563-2, not patented, as the female seed parent with a proprietary selection of Impatiens hawkeri, identified as code number 97-253-4, not patented, as the male pollen parent. Comparisons between the new variety and its parents cannot be made, as the parental varieties no longer exist. The cultivar ‘Applause White’ was discovered and selected as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in a controlled environment in Lompoc, Calif. Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings has shown that the unique features of the new variety are stable and reproduced true to type in successive propagations.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of ‘Applause White’. Characteristics that distinguish ‘Applause White’ as a new and distinct cultivar from others known to the breeder include:                1) Compact, mounded habit;        2) Freely branching;        3) Large flowers, approximately 70 mm in diameter;        4) Tolerates high temperatures and full sun conditions;        5) Tolerates cool night temperatures to 5° C.,        6) Rounded flowers are carried over the foliage canopy; and        7) Early to flower, finishing 7 weeks in a 10 cm pot.        
Plants of the new variety can be compared to plants of the Impatiens cultivar ‘Ovation Bright White’, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 12,959. In side-by-side comparisons conducted by the Inventor in Lompoc, Calif., plants of the new variety differed from plants of the cultivar ‘Ovation Bright White’ in the following characteristics:                1) Flowers of the new variety were larger than the flowers of ‘Ovation Bright White’;        2) Plants of the new variety had a mounded habit and a height of 12 to 15 cm, whereas the plants of ‘Ovation Bright White’ had a semi-upright habit and a height of 22 to 25 cm;        3) Plants of the new variety had a stem color of 146C, whereas plants of ‘Ovation Bright White’ had a stem color of 146C with a cast around the nodes of 184B;        4) Plants of the new variety finished faster than plants of ‘Ovation Bright White’; and        5) Leaf width measurements of the new variety were wider than the leaf width measurements of ‘Ovation Bright White’.        